Yesterday evening the U.S. Department of Justice announced that KuCoin, one of the world’s top 10 centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, and its founders, Chun Gan (a.k.a. Michael) and Ke Tang (a.k.a. Eric), have been indicted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York for violating U.S. anti-money laundering regulations and for engaging in the unauthorized transmission of currency.Prosecution: KuCoin and its Founder Intentionally Concealed a Large Number of U.S. UsersAccording to the DOJ announcement, U.S. prosecutors believe that KuCoin and its founders were aware of their obligations under U.S. anti-money laundering regulations, but willfully chose to ignore them:For example, KuCoin failed to implement an adequate KYC program, and the exchange did not require users to provide any identifying information until at least July 2023, when KuCoin implemented a KYC program for its new customers after it was notified of a criminal investigation into its activities by federal authorities.Due to KuCoin’s willful failure to implement the required AML and KYC programs, KuCoin has been heavily used as an avenue for money laundering, dark market trading, fraud, and other means, and since its inception in 2017, KuCoin has generated more than $5 billion in questionable proceeds from criminal transactions.